Sometimes it’s hard for us to picture God. I read about a little girl who went with her
family to see a beautiful fireworks display.
After it was over. Her Daddy pointed at the stars and said to her:
"Look, sweetheart, those are God's fireworks."
After thinking for a minute the little girl
said: "I know why God made them so high in the sky?"
"Dad was fascinated, He asked, “why did he
do that?" She put her hand on her hip and said – Daddy, don’t you know,
God’s the only one who can reach up there."
Our God
is sure big, isn’t he?
Recently
I either heard or read the following phrase; “Grace is a God who stoops.”
That really hit me, because God, the Holy, Almighty, Eternal, King and Ruler
of the stars, of the entire universe, sometimes shows himself to us as the God
who stoops down and reaches out to His people.
In Philippians 2:5 (NIV) we read,
In your relationships with
one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who,
being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to
be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself
nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
The verse
says that He humbled himself. - Jesus
stooped. He bent down. He reached
out. He came down.
Can you
imagine God almighty on the throne of the Universe –
- Coming down to earth from the
glory of heaven to be placed in a manger in Bethlehem, to become the created
along with the creator.
- Or Bending down to write in the sand when the woman was about to be stoned to death.
- Or Reaching down to the Leper who was pleading to be healed.
- Or Stooping down– to wash the feet of His
disciples.
And yet He came to earth.
And It was for love of man that He came down to
earth from that realm of Glory.
In
John 8 (NIV) we read of Him bending down.
Jesus was in the temple teaching and ….
“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a
woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman
was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law. Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a
trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and
started to write on the ground with his finger. When
they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one
of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard
began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was
left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman,
where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
Can
you picture her looking around and seeing everyone gone. She answered
“No one,
sir,”
Jesus said to her
“Then neither do I condemn
you,” . . .
“Go now and leave your life of sin.”
He
bent down to help the woman who needed His love as much as His correction.
It was for love of that sinner that He bent
down.
In
Matthew 8 (NIV) we read that
Jesus was with a large crowd
of people when a man who had leprosy came and knelt before Him and asked,
“Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the
man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he
was cleansed of his leprosy.
It was for love of the
hurting that He reached down.
John 13 (NIV) tells us an amazing event in which Jesus stooped to
wash the feet of His disciples. Jesus –
the Rabbi, Jesus the Son of God, Jesus washing dirty feet.
It
was just before the Passover Festival. . . . The
evening meal was in progress, . . . Jesus knew that the
Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from
God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off
his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, He
poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying
them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”
He was showing them how
they should humble themselves and love each other. Can you imagine the grace that Jesus
displayed in stooping to wash the feet of these men?
It was for love of His followers that He stooped
down to teach them in such a way.
Jesus is the God who stoops, who reaches down, who bends down
– the God who came down from Glory
to show us how much he loves us.
He reaches down and
touches us with His healing love. He bends
down and offers us forgiveness. He stooped
down to show us by example how to love others.
He came down to give us eternal life.
